A/N: I know this is after Christmastime, but I wasn't writing fics yet then, and I definitely don't want to wait a year to write this! This will be a multi-chapter fic looking into how the Secret Santa game affects our favorite group! :D If you have and feedback, suggestions for gifts to certain characters, or anything else, I would love to hear it! I love reading any of the comments y'all leave, they make my day! Thank you for reading! :D


When Alex first came to Columbia (on his full ride scholarship), he wasn't really planning on making friends, much less forming and maintaining lifelong relationships. So it came as a big surprise to Alex when he found himself in the middle of an amazing mismatched family that consisted of all of his new friends. Even more shocking to Alex was that they all seemed to genuinely care for him, care for his well being, and even cared about any other significant aspect in his life. Perhaps more surprising to Alex was the fact that he cared just as strongly for the rest of them. He would do anything for any part of his new family. Which is what they were. Alex finally had a family- at least, for the first time since he was twelve and his mother died.

Everyone important in Alexander's life seemed to come from money- or at least, came from more money than him. To be fair, that wasn't a truly difficult feat to accomplish, but the point still stood that Alexander felt out of place at times with his group of friends.

Perhaps, however, the most interesting facet about this rag tag group were the enormous differences that were exhibited in the makeshift family, and the love that still prevailed over them all.

The Schuyler sisters all came from a very wealthy family, as their father was a successful senator. John Laurens, Alexander's boyfriend, came from a very similar financial background. Although John's current relationship with his father (and by extension the rest of his family) was strained at best, he still was accustomed to and grew up in a very financially fortunate environment.

Lafayette, as the Marquis de Lafayette, was even more so fortunate, and had no want that had a need to be filled.

George Washington, Alexander's constitutional law T.A. Lafayette's boyfriend, and one of Alex's best friends was a product of an 'old money' Virginian family.

Hercules Mulligan was perhaps the only friend in Alexander's group who didn't come from exorbitant amounts of money. Instead, Hercules' family was a comfortable American-middle class one. Still, the luxuries he had been afforded and were accustomed to growing up were some that Alex would dream of on Nevis.

Even the few people who seemed to be moreso of outliers in Alexander's life (and in one instance, the bane of his existence), were all fairly well off.

Thomas Jefferson was also a child of an "old money" virginian family, as was his boyfriend James Madison. Aaron Burr, in contrast, was more in line with Hercules' financial upbringing, but still financially stable.

With all of this being said, however, Alexander didn't let his impoverished upbringing stand in the way of his newfound family by creating disparities or jealousy in his friends' lives.

Even with his friends coming from these backgrounds of financial supremacy, none of them were spared of the curse of being a Broke College Kid. So, when the holiday season rolled around, an idea was hatched by none other than Alexander Hamilton after hearing his friends' continuous complaints on their parents either not providing them with sufficient money to spend on christmas presents, or the fact that their part-time jobs on campus had no way of supplying them with money to buy gifts for everyone in their large friend group.

Alexander brought up his idea on night when everyone in the tight-knit group was gathered at George's nicely-sized off-campus house he shared with his boyfriend, Lafayette. Oh, the perks of being an Ivy-League T.A.

"It just seriously stinks, y'know? Like, y'all are my family, and I wish I could buy the presents I want to get for everyone. Being a broke college kid sucks, man." John pouted as Alex gave off a derisive snort from where his head was positioned on John's lap.

"Gosh, being broke must really suck!" Teased Alex, earning a slight hit on the head from John.

"Shut up, Lex. You know what I meant."

"Like, I know that Christmas isn't just about presents, and that really isn't the point, but it just stinks because I love all of you guys so much and I wish I had the money to buy you all the presents you deserve!" Eliza groaned, upset with the continuation of the group's' earlier conversation about the prospect of not having the proper funds to buy gifts for their loved ones this year. It was an entirely new experience for her, to not be able to give to the extent she wanted to.

"I have an idea." Alex leaned up, off of John.

"For what?" John asked, curious as to what was so important as to have made his boyfriend move from his favorite lounging position.

"What to do for the Christmas predicament everyone is in!"

At that, more of the group became interested in the conversation that most had only been half-way partaking in.

"Ok! What is it?" Peggy asked excitedly- Christmas time was her favorite time of year, and she loved the idea of spreading the joy in any way possible.

"Why not do a secret santa? I saw the idea on one of those cheesy Hallmark movies John always makes me watch-"

"Hey! Those aren't cheesy! Besides, I definitely wasn't the one who ended up cryin-"

"Anyways," loudly interrupted Alex, not particularly wanting that story told at this moment in time. "We put everyone's names into a hat, each draw one, and then we only have to buy for one person. I mean, I know it isn't quite the same, because we all want to give each other the best presents possible, but considering we are all pretty much broke college kids- which, honestly, kind of makes me feel slightly less out of place with you guys, but that's besides the point. Where was I? Oh! So like I was saying, we can set a spending limit and then we can really focus on one person so everyone will end up getting a really thoughtful gift and it'll hopefully be more meaningful like that. I mean if you guys don't want to, we obviously don't have to, I mean it might've been a stupid idea, but-"

"Alex!" interrupted Angelica. She was well versed in ending his rants, or rather, ramblings, and sensed that he would continue on this topic until he was stopped forcibly. He especially needed to stop as he was heading into the self-conscious portion of his speeches, where his thoughts were immediately verbalized, and gave way to the internal monologue that his friends would never want to use whatever idea he had conjured, or that he wasn't meant to be with them, or whatever struck his subconscious' fancy that day.

"Sorry, yeah?" Alex stopped abruptly, his expression slightly shocked, as if his brain hadn't yet communicated to his face that the rambling was about the stop.

"I think that's a lovely idea, and I think everyone else does too." As Angelica smiled towards Alexander, she also looked around the room for feedback. Most of the group was excitedly nodding, or providing their affirmations in some other way. John squeezed Alex's hand. Eliza let out a slight squeal that might have been a "yes!", but that was truly up for debate.

"Let's do it now, mes amies!" Smiled Lafayette, jumping off of George's lap, where the couple had been resting on the recliner in the corner. The frenchmen jubilantly rushed out of the room, to return in a only few short moments with an honest-to-god top hat, a notebook, and a pen.

"Where on earth did you get a top hat in 30 seconds?!" Asked an incredulous Hercules.

"I have my ways, Hercules." Shot back Laf, winking at the fashion-design major. "Ok, so I would write everyone's names down, but as some people here think my handwriting is sloppy," at this, Laf turned around and glared at George who held up his hands, not wanting to resume an argument that the couple had apparently partaken in one too many times. "I suppose I shouldn't write them. Who would like to?"

"I can do it, Gilbert." Angelica stood and gave Lafayette a grin before taking the notebook into her hands, with the pen balancing on top of it as she returned to her seat. "Okeydoke, so just raise your hand and I'll say your name when I've written it to make sure I don't exclude anyone."

Everyone's hands shot up enthusiastically, awaiting their names to be scrawled onto the paper.

"Okay… Herc, I have you. John...Alex...Laf. George, I got you. Pegs and Liz I got you both. I'll put my name in… is that everyone?" Angelica looked up from her writing to see no more hands were raised in the room, and nodded in affirmation to her own question.

"Wait!" Peggy interrupted as Angelica had begun to tear the sheet on which she had just written on into slips, separating each person's name from the others.

"What is it Peggy?" asked Hercules, looking at her inquisitively, somewhat surprised at the outburst from the typically quietist Schuyler sister.

"Should we include James, Aaron, and Jefferson?" Peggy looked straight at Angelica, not wanting to see the surefire looks of either apprehension or disgust gracing Alexander's, and possibly some of the other's faces.

"Ugh, do we seriously have to? Jefferson will probably just give whoever he pulls a calendar with pictures of Monticello and then an autobiography I'm sure he's already written." Groaned Alexander. "I really didn't mind the other two, I mean, Madison and I worked together a lot last semester on that huge essay. And, sure, I even consider Aaron a friend. But really, Jefferson?"

George snorted quietly at Alexander's outburst. He wasn't a big fan of Thomas' either, but he wasn't really able to express that sentiment as Jefferson was also a student in the class the teacher-assisted for.

"He has gotten better since he started dating James, and it is all in the spirit of Christmas, right?" Peggy turned a pleading face to Alexander, and then to the other men in the group when Alex looked away, in hopes to not have to endure Peggy's puppy-dog stare and remain in his resolve.

"It really isn't the holiday spirit to exclude someone so blatantly. Madison did invite us to his birthday, and all of them have even come to some of our movie nights lately. They'd find out if we didn't include them..." Eliza trailed off, awaiting another outburst from Alex. When she didn't immediately get one, she looked over at him, surprised.

"...Yeah. I guess that's the Christmassy thing to do." He gave Peggy a weak smile, obviously restraining from adding another smart ass comment.

Perhaps the Christmas spirit can even affect Alex, smiled Hercules, thinking to himself. Alex was by no means a Scrooge and definitely not a selfish person, but once you made his enemies list, it was a near-impossible task to be removed from it.

"So it's settled!" Angelica beamed as she finished tearing the paper into the strips, having added the three new names. She quickly folded them all in half, throwing them into the top hat.

"Should we wait to draw names until the three guys can get here?" George asked, wanting the chances for drawing certain names to remain equal.

"Yeah, I guess we should actually invite them and let them know what's happening!" Laughed John.

After having all watched two episodes of Tiny House Hunters together and eaten the much-too-greasy pizza they had delivered, there was a knock on the door.

"Can you please let us in? It's freezing out here!" Jefferson yelled through the door. Alex smirked at the comment, but stayed silent.

George tapped Lafayette's leg, signalling that he needed to get off of his lap so George could go and answer the door. Lafayette gave him a quick kiss when he got up, then flopped back down into the large recliner.

"Hey, guys." Greeted George, leading the three men in from the front hallway to the living room where the rest of the group was.

"So, what's up? Peggy texted me while we were in Poli-Sci, and said you guys had and idea you wanted us to partake in?" Aaron smiled at Peggy, and then turned his inquisitive smile to the rest if the group.

"As it is officially December, it is also officially Christmastime!" Eliza beamed at the group, motioning for the three men to find seats somewhere in the room.

"Okay, so?" Jefferson sniped, as he sat on the hardwood floor.

"Sooo, we wanted to know if you three would like to partake in our Secret Santa exchange?" Angelica cut off any retort Alex was about to give to the rude Virginian.

"I'd love to!" James smiled at Angelica, thanking her including them.

"Me as well, thank you." Burr grinned at Angelica as well.

James and Aaron side-eyed Thomas, who put on a slightly pained-looking smile and also offered his confirmations for wanting to participate.

"Awesome! In that case we can start drawing names!" Eliza grinned excitedly as Hercules whooped in response.

"Okay, who want to draw first?"